{"id":250797,"date":"2025-10-30T20:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/250797\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T20:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:18:10","slug":"red-bull-is-overprotecting-tsunoda-given-how-bad-hes-been-villeneuve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/250797\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull is \u201coverprotecting\u201d Tsunoda given how bad he\u2019s been \u2013 Villeneuve"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve<\/a> has hit back at suggestions Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> has been performing better in Formula 1, suggesting Red Bull has been \u201coverprotecting\u201d him.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s down 21-0 to Max Verstappen<\/a> in their qualifying head-to-head, Tsunoda had one of his best performances so far at the Mexico Grand Prix, with \u2018just\u2019 a 0.211s deficit to Red Bull\u2019s lead car as he went out in Q2.<\/p>\n

In the race, a delayed pitstop aimed at hindering Verstappen\u2019s rivals cost Tsunoda a likely ninth place \u2013 or a potential top six\/seven, the Japanese racer has claimed \u2013 with Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies owning up to \u2018killing a few points [Tsunoda] would have scored on merit\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cYuki had his best weekend in a long time,\u201d the Frenchman insisted. \u201cWe have said that a few times, but it is true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villeneuve, however, strongly disagreed with Mekies\u2019 stance on Sky Sports\u2019 F1 Show podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t understand how a team can say, \u2018Oh, he’s had a good weekend\u2019. Better than maybe other weekends he’s had, but is it a good weekend?\u201d he rhetorically pondered.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s still very far off his team-mate. He’s not bringing anything to the table either in pace, points for the team, or helping Max for the championship.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he has a lot of experience. We’ve seen the best of him, he’s already on the way down, so it seems that they’re overprotecting him for some reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no, you can’t say that was a good weekend. It was maybe his least bad, but it wasn’t a good weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Red Bull keeps pondering options to pick Verstappen\u2019s team-mate for F1\u2019s new technical era in 2026, Tsunoda\u2019s five seasons\u2019 worth of experience doesn\u2019t mean much to Villeneuve.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all talk about, in a situation like this, \u2018you need experience\u2019 \u2013 and yes, I agree, but you need good experience,\u201d the Canadian argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t matter if a driver has 20 years of racing. If he wasn’t good or good enough, he still won’t be good enough, and he still won’t help you to understand the new regulations. He still won’t help you to develop and test that car, so why would you put a known quantity that you know is not good enough?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that case, you might as well go for the young rookie or left-field, take someone and take a chance that will bring new energy and a new thought process to the team. What you already have, you know it won’t cut it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current Racing Bulls<\/a> driver Isack Hadjar<\/a> is the favourite to get the second Red Bull seat for 2026, following an impressive rookie F1 season that included a podium finish at Zandvoort. He currently lies 10th in the standings, while Tsunoda is down in 17th, with 39 points to 28.<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has hit back at suggestions Yuki Tsunoda has been performing better in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[110366,49,48,578,576,577,13138,110365,117178,2190,82,3029],"class_list":{"0":"post-250797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-jacques-villeneuve","15":"tag-mexican-gp","16":"tag-red-bull-is-u201coverprotectingu201d-tsunoda-given-how-bad-heu2019s-been-u2013-villeneuve","17":"tag-red-bull-racing","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}